Thatcher's government in the late 1970s and '80s was a pretty grim time for the country. Everyone was on strike, the National Front was on the rise and racism was rampant and blatant. Cutting through all of that was the incendiary creative force that was poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.

His most famous poems tackled subjects like racist police brutality, poverty and institutional racism all through a pioneering use of patois wordplay. He often combined his poetry with dub — most famously with iconic Jamaican producer Dennis Bovell — but in a lot cases performed his poetry as spoken word.

Here he is in 1980 on The Old Grey Whistle Test, reciting "Inglan Is A Bitch", taken from his album of the same year, Bass Culture (also produced by Bovell). Completely acapella, but all the more potent because of it.